Nepal flood survivors recount minutes that swept away buses and families

Survivors of Nepal's August 26 floods recalled how buses, homes and relatives were swept away within minutes. Their accounts underline the scale of loss as families keep searching for the missing.

In Short

• A pilgrim bus near Bhainse vanished as muddy waters slammed the road
• Badri Prasad Devkota survived by jumping and clinging to hillside vegetation
• Twenty-eight people from Devkota's pilgrimage group remain missing, including his wife

Survivors of the August 26 floods in Nepal have described how the disaster unfolded in minutes, sweeping away homes, vehicles and families. With hundreds dead and thousands still missing, their accounts show the sudden force of the flooding and the search that continues for loved ones.

Among them is Badri Prasad Devkota, who was travelling with his wife and 34 other pilgrims to the Hindu holy site of Gosainkunda in Nepal's Rasuwa district when a wall of muddy water rushed towards their bus at Bhainse in Nuwakot. The Kathmandu Post reported on Monday that two bodies had been recovered and 28 people from the group remained missing, including Devkota's wife.

"My wife grabbed my hand and pleaded, 'Do not jump.' I told her, 'We will die here'," Devkota told The Kathmandu Post. He broke free from her grip and jumped from the moving bus as the Bhotekoshi flood swept across the road. The wave threw him into a roadside drain, but he held on to vegetation on the hillside. From there, he watched the bus disappear under the floodwaters.

After the water receded, Devkota and his cousin Tularam, one of six passengers who survived by jumping from the bus, climbed about 20 metres up the hillside and spent two hours on a patch of grass. They saw people stranded on rooftops and others buried in mud before climbing higher to a village called Hilekharka, where local residents gave them tea and biscuits and helped them get first aid. The next day, the two returned to Bhainse to look for their families, but found no trace of them before travelling back to their home district, Gorkha.

At Betrawati, Santaman Lama survived after acting on a warning, but said he lost almost everything he owned. Lama told Onlinekhabar on Sunday that he had taken his son and daughter to school on the morning of August 26 and was returning home when a nearby hardware shop owner warned him that a flood was coming and told him to move uphill. Such warnings were not unusual in Betrawati, and Lama did not take it seriously at first. But he passed the message to his wife and the family moved to higher ground.

The first surge hit soon afterwards. Lama said the river swept his wife away and that he grabbed her and pushed her towards higher ground before clinging to bushes himself. From there, he watched the flood carry away his house. He also pulled two neighbours, Ishwarlal Shrestha and Buddhilal Dangol, to safety before losing contact with them, Onlinekhabar reported. Lama later contacted his children's school and learnt that both were safe. But his house, shop and almost everything he owned were gone. "I have nothing to eat or nowhere to stay," Lama said. "That was everything I had."

As families continue searching for the missing, the stories of Devkota and Lama capture both the speed of the floods and the losses left behind.

With PTI Inputs

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